The Cell
by alphawoolf
Summary: DISCLAIMER: This story was created a little less than two years before the game released, and so used what was announced at the time. Will not be continued past Ch.5 The journey of a unit based in the Division's universe. Whether it be the virus, other units, or even themselves, the Blacklist will do everything in their power to restore New York to how it once thrived. All OC's.
1. Police Station

He slid from one counter to another. The gunfire was close - closer than before, and he had to move. "Water, water water water..." Empty. The majority of the shelves had been picked clean, but the further back he progressed, the more the shelves seemed to show hope that he would find what he was looking for all along. He tugged at the strings on his hoodie out of a nervous habit. Hope of finding something other than canned food, which he grabbed, was slowly but surely diminishing as he checked coolers and freezers. Empty.

"Hm..." As he walked out, his walkie talkie picked up a stray radio signal. "Help us! We're trapped in the police station, raiders are pickin' us clean!" The walkie talkie ceased suddenly, "Shit, Wilson, hold that fuckin' door!" He had to move, and he had to move fast. The police station was a few blocks away - he had passed it on his scavenging runs more than often enough. "Skylar," A voice in his walkie-talkie picked up. "Police station just went critical. Hurry your ass up."

"Yeah, I'm on it," he replied, picking up the pace into a full-on sprint. The gunfire got louder and louder as he went closer - single shots, followed by a volley of bullets in reply...Semi-automatics coupled with bullet hoses? Possibly.

Finding himself at the doors, he slid behind one of the police cruisers. "Think, think..." He could either go in from the front doors, or...Go in through the roof, but how...? He didn't have time. "Draw their attention and go through the front doors," he muttered. With his plan set out into motion, he walked in, keeping his head low, before firing a few shots from his pistol and shouting, "Hey, over here!" The crew turned to face him, and their weapons followed shortly after. Bullets flew in his direction as he ran out from the doors and jumped over the hood of a cruiser to take cover behind it - as he returned his fire blindly. He only had so many bullets, so he had to make this count…

"I'm fuckin' pinned!" He shouted into his walkie-talkie, "Could use a little help here!" But help would never come. He hoped it would, but the odds were against him.

Austin look at his radio alarmed, and picked it up as he frantically searched his world map for any hostiles on the way there, "Sky! What the fuck did you get into?"

"Police station went critical, I decided to check it out. I'm outnumbered and outgunned! Send help ASAP!" He dug into cover, firing blind shots back into the fray.

"On my way!" He ran towards the door of the safe house and grabbed his Commando on the way out. Rushing to the police station, he contacted the few other members of the crew. "Sky's pinned. Police station critical. Meet there if you can. Austin, over." He arrives with two other members and stacks up on the front door. He let out a faint whistle as a signal before kicking in the doors and running for cover. "HEY SKY!" Austin and his companion laid down suppressing fire as the third went around the left flank to the back.

"Shit! Thank you!" He moved to the left, pulling his trigger once more before reloading. This would be his chance, if any at all, to make a comeback.

"Who's the leader of these assholes?"

"I don't know!"

"Any clue WHY they attacked this place?" Austin leaned to the right and fired a few suppressing shots, completely missing.

"I don't know, either!" He ran from the cruiser down to a roadblock. "I just heard the place was critical, so I came on over!

"That is so goddamn impulsive!" He reached into his pack as he yelled, "Cover me!" A homing mine emerged and he started preparing it to clear the middle of the room.

"There's a reason my call sign is bleeding heart!" Austin primed the homing mine and rolled it. He started firing as the opposing force went into chaos as those who saw the mine tried to escape it.

"Hm..." He reloaded his pistol once more before placing a few well-aimed shots down-range.

"Moving!" He advanced towards a farther up cover as only a few remained.

"Covering!" Bullets grazed his arm, and he flinched, and… Bang. He had no idea where his bullet went, but he heard a few squishy sounds.

The third friend emerged through the back hallway for the finishing blow. "Clear?!" Austin asked as he peeked his head from cover.

"Watch yourself! I can't be sure!" Skylar responded as he started to slowly move up.

"John, clear?" Austin checked for confirmation.

"Clear!" John responded and Austin jogged over to Skylar as he got the confirmation to check on his wellbeing. "Were you shot?"

"I may have been clipped in the arm, but...Egh."

"Nothing fatal right or anything we need to attend to right this instant?"

"No. I'm alright." He climbed to his feet.

"Good. I am going to go let the cops out." He walked to the cells and blasted the doors open with his sidearm.

"Alright." He limped into the police station to see Austin freeing the officers. "Nice."

"Right? Good Samaritan." He turned to the cops, "Uhm.. For saving you guys, could we possibly get some weapons, food, water, stuff like that?"

A police officer responded happily, and relieved, "Yeah. Code to the armory is SO33."

"SO33..." Skylar mumbled. He walked to the armory and input the code. "Oh...My...God."

Austin trailed behind with the rest of the crew, "Mother. Fucking. Jackpot. Dibs on the tear gas."

"Water, food..." He looked at a box. "Yo, that box..."

"Check it. All yours mang. I just want my tear gas and food." He grabbed the tear gas and examined it with a giant grin. Soon after, he grabbed a few packets of food.

"Alright." He opened the box, and… Holy shit! "A PDW!"

"Keep it in your pants, Laverne. You act like you got an RPG." Austin teased.

"This is just as good."

"Those guys, any idea what faction they were from? I may go check for dog tags."

"Do it." Hearing the mention of dog tags, he grabbed for his. Identity? Check. This could seriously determine their enemies. Hell, maybe even a faction war. Austin waltz back into the main room and checked a few bodies for dog tags. "The Fallen!"

"Shit..." This wasn't Skylar's first encounter with them.

"These guys are huge. They have a ton of territory. Vote on whether or not to get payback?" Austin walked back to the armory.

"No. Leave them be. The Cell is too small." Skylar was reluctant but he knew Austin would keep pushing the topic. The Cell division was split into two teams - The Blacklist, and the Alphas. A small group of people, but...They survived.

"Well I mean. We're the Blacklist. We have like 5 guys. We're pretty good at warfare. We've got tactics. We haven't _really_ been beaten _too_ badly."

"Hm. We haven't but...This would be a _major_ faction war. It would be like the ghosts against the federation." Heh. Video game references.

"PSH. And did the ghosts put up a hell of a fight?" I see what that the fuck he did there.

"They won." But they weren't the Ghosts.

"If they can do it, we can do it. Am I right? I think we can do it if we are tactical and think this through."

"You are." But...Scans. Shiiiiet. "What about scans, though?"

"What about them?"

"We'll be spotted."

"They won't think to scan if we are quiet."

"Got a point… Very well." A clan war against the Fallen… A clan war against The Fallen would be like lighting a powder keg. The Cell is barely a division in itself - and now they were taking on one of the largest groups of raiders that existed in the tri-state area. People would hear about it. People would be watching. "If we are not to plan our victory," he muttered. "Then we are to plan our funeral!"

"Let's head back to base, Sky. We should get the rest of the Blacklist over to plan out our tactics." He kicked open the back door to the police station, gun raised, ready for a fight.


	2. Tough Decisions

Jay sits in a dark room in front of a bright screen, showing video feed of the land around Manhattan, coming from various drones he's deployed. "There they are," he muttered to himself, as he leaned forward in his chair. He picked up his walkie talkie and radioed Austin, "Well thanks for giving me a warning, could have provided some assistance."

He laughed and grabbed his radio slowly, pushing the speak button, "Sorry man: was caught in the moment trying to save Skylar's ass. Give us some eyes in the sky while we head back?"

"Yeah man, I saw a squad of what looked to be scavengers a few blocks ahead, but they had some light weaponry, so watch your backs." Jay slowly set the walkie talkie down and looked at the picture of his girlfriend, Savannah, taped to his screen, who died at a market firefight just 5 days after the virus was released.

"Will do." He led the way down the street with the other four trailing.

Sky sent a message to all members of the Blacklist to fall back to base, wherever they were, for a meeting. They needed all hands on deck here, if they were going to take on such a big outfit. "I see that the majority of us have gathered already," he started, walking over to a musty pool table. The balls had long since been gone, and instead, the table was lined with a map of New York. It was their planning area, and though it was shitty compared to what they could have done, it was good enough. "We're going to need to plan this out, down to the last goddamned speck."

Austin sat down in a small chair in the corner next to John, the strong, brutal, silent one, as he dismantled his weapon to clean it. "I agree. Let's plan this shit. Supplies are priority one for an operation of this size."

"Should we get the Alphas in on it, as well?" He asked, staring at the maps, and then back at the message board, and then back at the map again.

"If it turns into a firefight, then yes."

Jay would limp into the room and look at the map. His face lights up as he looks at the map, "Guys, shut up for a second," He started. "I have an idea."

"Then I'll just broadcast it to them over the-Huh?" Skylar stopped himself.

"I was looking at footage, a large buildup of armed civilians are in this apartment complex…"

"Go on." Skylar urged.

"They all got infected."

"An entire social zone?" Austin asked in a mild, yet concerned manner.

"So...This social zone was filled with a single infected, and then it spread from there?" Skylar asked puzzled.

""Yes, and... Everyone wants these supplies, but it has all we need."

"So you're telling us that we raid a social zone full of infected for supplies? That sounds dangerous as fuck." Skylar and Jay often argued as Austin and John just watched.

"It is, but do you have a better idea?"

"We were here to stop this."

"No. But I have a problem with this." Austin continued, "Infected aren't zombies. They are still people and are going to hang onto these supplies. They need them and we can't just steal them, or we turn to the enemy."

"Do you think the others will play as nice as we want to?" Jay questioned.

"They need it more than we do." Skylar shot back. "Jay," he started. "Did you hear about the 300 Spartans versus the half-million Persians? It's an old story, I know, but… It goes to show that we don't need numbers or the best gear - just tactical superiority."

"Spartans eventually lost the war, were erased from history, and are commonly insulted for their brutish tactics to this day, your point is?"

"...New analogy," Skylar mumbled. "The Romans. Remember those motherfuckers?"

"Didn't their empire collapse?"

"Their empire eventually _did_ collapse, but look at _our_ empire. We're a modern-day fucking Rome, and we're on our last legs."

"Are you implying we should kill our best friends and steal the empire in a last ditch effort?"

Skylar sighed, feeling for his knife, and jabbing into the spot where their base was supposed to be. "These are dark times, but that doesn't mean we're on the brink of extinction. I'm saying we kill the others involved in this bullshit program and conquer the area, thus ruling over the other Divisions with a fair hand. We'll have them help us find a cure for whatever the fuck started this," He paused. "At its most basic form, this is really just non-paid disaster relief."

Austin decided to pitch in and stood, "May I?"

"Go ahead, not like we were going anywhere with this..." Jay responded.

"We're not finding a cure. That's for the big wigs in charge of this program and scientists and shit. We're here to keep order, not stop the disease. We cannot and will not stop the disease. We can do our best to keep order though. That's all I have to say." He sat again.

"At the very least, we identify Patient Zero." Skylar tried to squeeze in.

"I need to point out these people didn't just own weapons, they came from somewhere, and that somewhere is other people. If we don't stop it there, this whole damn place can become infected before we can do our job." Jay commented.

"Your plan, Skylar? I don't want to pitch into the plan as it's not my place." Austin was in charge of the team in the field, in the action, while Skylar handled supplies and planning. Jay shares the job with Skylar, but became their eyes and ears as well when Savannah died.

Jay looked at the map and sighed, "Sometimes I don't even know what we're arguing about anymore." He grabbed his weapon and walked to the other room.

"Hold on, let me start up the broadcast." Skylar walked over to a radio, twisted some knobs, and changed some frequencies. He was now in contact with all of the Cell. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Cell, as you may already be aware, members of the Blacklist had a run-in with a very...prominent division, known as the Fallen." He took a breath. "We've decided to take them on."


	3. Long Journey

"Now, Alphas, I want you to stay idle. Do whatever it is you were doing, stay normal. Blacklist, which is all here, I want you to come back to base. In the meantime, I'll be focusing on formulating a plan." The Fallen was a very prominent division, and they were definitely well armed. The Cell was outmatched, outclassed, outgunned, and outnumbered, but that didn't mean they weren't going to try. "I want all of you to invest in stealth gear. Be quick and light on your feet. Suppressors on all of your weapons. If shit hits the fan, I've still some medical supplies but that's about it. We're a group of five. Austin, you can pick two to three people to be with you on your missions. Either way, we need tightly packed teams. Gentlemen, we are treading in a minefield. Make sure you know what you're doing."

So many things that could go wrong, but he couldn't show that to those around him. He couldn't show that to the Alphas, who were listening. In this moment, they needed an inspiration. They needed words to sweep them off of their feet; they needed something to light a fire under their bellies. And the coming war was just that. "This is the Blacklist, signing off to move on the Social Zone. Stay safe Cell," He turned off the transmission and let out a deep breath. Announcing they were moving on the zone should motivate them all. Who was he kidding? Their odds were shit, but it was worth a shot.

With Austin's weapons clean, his craving for quality food starting to kick in again, so he grabbed an energy bar from his backpack. With a mouthful, he asked, "Head out now?"

"Yeah. Let's do this." He smiled, slinging his PDW to his arm and motioning for the door.

Austin waved for John to follow. Skylar, Austin, John, and maybe even Wilson would be enough to take down an army. He unlocked the front door and pushed on out with the other two at his heels. The abandoned apartment they resided always bugged him a bit, like the whole building may collapse at any minute. It was wreck but had an unseen lust behind it. The thought that it may be the place where a world changing plan would be made gave him a feeling of hope. Wilson was outside on watch when Austin called his name, "Wilson. We're investigating a social zone. Feel free to come."

"I'm fine. Somebody needs to watch this place right?"

"True that brother." Austin turned around as he finished that sentence, hearing running and a distant "Hold up!" He turned quickly, gun ready to blast someone. It was just her, that blondey that was always running late.

"Jesus I nearly blasted your head off Leanna."

"Sorry! I just got off doing recon on that clothing store. I got lots of warm clothes, and, if I do say so myself, some fucking delicious Twinkies."

"Good thing is those never ever expire," Wilson chipped in.

"Well at least you're here in time for us to raid it," Austin never seemed to be able to stay mad at her: the completely opposite end of the spectrum when it came to the others.

"I heard over my radio you guys were going at it, well I'm ready. Let me just run these supplies upstairs."

"Lemme help you," Austin tailed her inside. "Run into anyone on your run?"

"Nah, it was pretty quiet. Just the standard civilians." She grabbed more ammo from her carbine, as she was the Blacklist's sharpshooter. Helluva shot; best most of them had seen.

"Shall we?" Austin opened the door for the two.

"We shall." She walked out first with Austin following close behind.

He walked down street level and saw everyone waiting to move out. Everyone seemed to have anxiety smeared across their faces. "Let's move out folks. Keep it spread out thin on the streets. I don't want any surprises."

"Aye, aye captain." John barked back. Ever since high school, John and Austin were constantly busting each other's balls. The two were incredibly close and Austin seemed to be one of the few people John would break silence for.

The groups went several blocks with no trouble, reaching the Upper East Side. The areas around Central Park were teaming with the virus, which of course brought Cleaners. How he hated the Cleaners, those flamethrower bastards destroying everything, thinking they are "destroying" the virus.

"Upper East, A." Jay warned.

"I hear you. Masks on people. Level four contamination coming up." The agents equipped their masks and were ready for whatever cleaners waiting around each corner.

Leanna moved up within five feet of Austin, blatantly ignoring his order to spread thin, but he liked her company, "So, Central Park, huh Austin?"

"Guess that's where we're heading according to Skylar."

"You don't seemed too thrilled with this mission."

"What makes you say that? I always love a good mission."

"I hear it in your voice. This isn't a good mission and you know it."

"Is it that obvious?"

"Probably not to the other guys, but a woman can tell these kind of things. What's bugging you about it so much?" She was now walking almost shoulder to should with him, coming up on a large apartment complex a few streets outside Central Park.

"I just don't like the thought of having to rip the supplies out of the hands of an infected. I get they're… gone in the head, but they're still human, you know? Flesh and bones like us."

"Sometimes we just have to do what we have to do. Viruses like these are a true test of survival of the fittest. Like Jay said, not everyone is going to play fair like us."

"I guess you have a point."

"I _know_ I have a point Mr. Kennedy."

"Whatever you say Ms. Johnson." He said laughing. Maybe this mission was not as bad as he made it out to be. Like his father repeated ad nauseam: "10% is what happens, 90% is how you react." God he missed him.

"Hey, just a request, can you two spread out so we don't get flanked and gunned down? Thanks." Jay snapped at the two and they went back to their formation.

Mason held up a fist and spoke into his earpiece, "Hold up. I got movement." They all took a knee and trained their guns up the street. Puffs of smoke were coming from the end of the street. They all knew what was coming as Mason motioned to pile into the apartments. John kicked the door open and covered the entrance as the team piled inside.

Skylar whispered, "Fucking cleaners. Always butting into other's shit."

"Amen brother," Jay responded quietly. He crouched and went to the next room to keep watch of the street. Austin looked at him and gave a hand signal him and Leanna were going to the roof. He nodded back.

Austin and Leanna went prone on the roof and watched the street, "How's the shooting today?"

Leanna looked at him smugly, "Great as always." She put on her long range scape and pulled down her bipod.

"Good. This is going to be a long day."


	4. Last Stretch

Everyone was anxious as the Cleaners made their way down the street. Three small infantry led their patrol, with two flamethrowers following closely behind, gasoline dripping from the containers on their back as they engulfed the sidewalks and street in fire.

"They're gonna fucking see us. Let's just get the jump on them," Skylar announced.

"Yeah and then we get cooked to a nice golden brown. Patience Sky, we'll take the opportunity if it comes to us." Jay responded. He was the epitome of patience, spending many hours in front of a computer screen waiting for something to happen in front of his drones.

"If I give the signal, take out their back flamethrower first. He's the biggest threat." Austin pointed down, spotting for Leanna who was staring through her scope.

"Copy that." She had not ever fought the Cleaners before, but now, she was wishing she never laid eyes on them. They were dangerous looking; they sent a chill up her spine at the thought of a firefight with them.  
Austin continues to stare through his binoculars at their formation, looking for weak spots. But then he saw a small nod from the man in the front to one in the middle, so slight, nobody else picked up on it. He said into his earpiece, "Did you guys see that?"

"What?" Jay whispered back.

"Bastard in the front gave a nod. Full alert. Any sudden movements by them and we blast them," But they hadn't made any sudden moves. They continued to walk down the street, out of sight. "Way to dodge a bullet there guys…"

"Out of sight, out of mind! Hell yeah!" The sound of Skylar celebrating with Jay echoed throughout the house.

Jay suddenly stopped his celebration and his ears seemed to have perked up, "Shut up. Listen."

Skylar went quiet for several moments, "I don't hear anything, man."

"That's because they don't want us to. I smell fucking kerosene!" He frantically tapped his earpiece. "Austin! Get ready for a fucking fight!"

Austin frantically looked down into the alley separating this building from the next, and there they stood. The flamethrower assholes aiming their weapons to spray the house in fire, "Hit the deck down there!" Just after he said that, the men starting shooting fire through the windows. Luckily, the three downstairs had hit the deck and were relatively safe from the flames flying over their heads.

Jay started crawling for the stairs, signaling for the other two to follow close. It was incredibly tight, the hairs on the back of his neck felt singed, but he knew he had to keep going. The only thing he heard besides the furniture burning was Skylar screaming, "The whole house is lighting up like a candle!"

Austin started raining bullets down on the men to the best of his ability. Just as he got a few shots off, the infantry previously with the Cleaners popped up on a rooftop across the street and started suppressing him and Leanna. She readjusted her position quickly and went to work trying to free Austin up to protect the others. "Hang on Austin!" She yelled over the roar of gunfire. She laid in a nice position, peaking through a hole of the brick rooftop. Austin, however, was laying down behind an incredibly small air conditioning vent, barely dodging bullets.

"Any minute now Leanna!"

"One down!"

"Can we get two?" He blind fired in their direction to help her.

"Count another!"

"Last one!" Austin dove out of cover to draw his fire, when Leanna nailed a headshot on the last assailant. He gave her a smile and a nod, then remembered his friends were in trouble. "Fire in the hole!" He tossed another one of his infamous proximity mines down and wasted the Cleaners.

"'Bought time man!" John yelled up at him. Austin responded with a laugh and walked to Leanna.

"Nice shooting there." She shot up from the ground and gave him a hard hug.

"I thought we were dead back there."

"That makes two of us," He let out a small smile and walked downstairs.

"Wrong direction! Back up!" Skylar shouted as the three bolted up the stairs towards Austin and Leanna. "The building is fucking going down!" They all ran back to the roof to hear bricks falling and the supports giving out from Austin's mine.

"Shit…We need to jump." Jay motioned for the next roof and slung his weapon over his shoulder. "I recommend getting some momentum first kids." He sprinted in the direction of the adjacent roof and jumped the ten foot gap, finishing with a clean roll. The rest followed suit, lying on the frozen over roof exhausted as they landed. The sounds of the burnt building collapsing drowned out anything the agents said.

John was the first to get back to his feet, "We need to get going, guys."

"Agreed. Helluva mission you chose Sky," Jay patted his back and walked for the fire escape.

Sky shook his head and covered the street as the rest climbed down. "Clear to come down!" Austin shouted up to him.

"Where to know, cap'n?" Leanna smirked at Austin.

"The social zone, private." Austin smiled back at her, with Jay rolling his eyes in response. Austin got back on topic, "Right…uh, we're going to stay above ground and move right through the infected area to the social zone. We need to move quickly to avoid attention from civilians. And for fuck's sake, do not shoot anyone. I don't care if they're foaming from their mouth, do not shoot civs. Let's move out." Austin led the tight formation through the last few streets to the zone.

"Central Park, boys. Beautiful ain't she?" Skylar looked at it for a few seconds before continuing on.

"Never thought it was so big." Jay retorted.

"Not from around here?" Leanna asked.

"Nah. I'm from Detroit originally. I came out here on a business trip for work then we were all called into action."

"You just keep your gear with you at all times?"

"Responsibility of an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division, isn't it?"

"Hell yeah it is." Skylar seemed to love this position for some reason. Austin could never comprehend it. Maybe it was because he loved to be the hero? But how could anyone like a pandemic sweeping the nation and causing absolute chaos? He may never figure that part out.

Night started to descend upon the city and that did not bring anything good. Even the noninfected turned into savages at night. Austin decided they needed to get into the zone quickly. "On me." He approached the door and motioned for everyone to stack up. "We get in there and split up. Leanna and I will take west and the three of you get east. Only grab serious hardware like explosives, high caliber weapons, and etcetera. No civilians." John moved up front and busted open the door. The agents disappeared into the night as they split up.


	5. Supplies and Demand

**Hey readers. I haven't uploaded in the past month from being busy with midterms, life, etc. Anyways, I'm home for break now so I will post a few updates in the next week. I was sure to make a nice, longer chapter focusing a lot on the dynamic between Leanna and Austin! Enjoy! Thanks for reading!**

* * *

Leanna and Austin moved low and quickly to a marquee they saw a little ways off, lit by what seemed to be a small fire. The night was quiet and their swift footsteps echoed throughout Austin's mind. Even though he knew they were being quiet, the occasional crunching of leaves reverberated throughout his mind, leading him to think someone would discover them at any second.

Austin slowly came to a halt around twenty yards behind what he could now see was a market. Leanna put a hand on his shoulder, signaling to follow. She took point into the cover of a section of thick foliage they could regroup at for a minute. Lowering her weapon, she whispered "Probably on food and clothes. Worth it?"

"It's worth a look. Let's keep it quiet as usual, though." She responded with a nod and Austin took the lead, considering he was the only one who suppressed his rifle on the way in. With a quick peek around the corner, it seemed clear, nobody within immediate sight, but it never harmed anyone to take it slow. The pair crept in front of the marquee and grabbed a few energy bars from a shelf. Nothing else was of value there, though. There were a few other stands surrounding it to create one of the many small streets of the western end. It resembled a farmers' market, in a way. Yet, there were spaces with a lot of open area, a large fence surrounding the perimeter, and a militaristic feeling. They scoured a few more of these small streets before deciding to go for broke and start out for one of the plazas.

They had barely seen anyone, only the occasional sleeping civilian. Going at night proved to have been a great asset to the team. Austin continued to lead and brought them to the edge of the plaza, "See anything?"

"Nothing." Leanna answered, clearly drowsily.

"Hey, if you want to call it a night, we can. No need to push yourself. There's always tomorrow."

"No, no. Let's hit up a few more buildings. I'm still on my game Austin. One-hundred-and-ten-percent. I could run a marathon." She finished with a yawn and a slight smile.

"Whatever you say 'Anna," He returned the smile, then turned the corner. This was what he heard chatter about. A few ammo crates scattered around, supply cashes: this was clearly once law enforcement's area. Was. That thought faded from his mind as he saw an incredibly sickly pack of civilians buzzing around at the end of the plaza. They took ammo and whatever supplies they could into their backpacks before finishing off their looting.

Leanna kept glancing between the end of the street and Austin, "Come on. If I remember right from my last visit, there was an exit a bit that way," She nudged her head to their right away from the infected.

"I'm right behind you." He started on behind he, troubled over the sight of those infected. Was that what the population was coming to? Would they all end up like that? Were Leanna and him sa- His train of thought was quickly interrupted by a loud bang from the eastern side. Shit. John, Skylar, and Jay were down there. A green flare lit up the sky from that end. The group were undoubtedly attempting to signal them that something had happened. A long time ago after a failed firefight, they all were scattered for days. The event led them to devise a system of flares: red for help, green for regroup at base, and blue for extraction.

"Hurry. Get to the street. The others ran into trouble so we need to get shelter."

"Why aren't we helping?" She asked worried while running for the exit.

"If they needed help, they'd have popped a red. They want us all to get out of here."

"I bet the assholes from earlier caught back up with us. I knew the Cleaners would want revenge!"

"Maybe. We need to get indoors," He pointed to an apartment building across the street as they hurried through the park's exit. Austin always hated to admit it, but he did worry about those guys. He really wanted to believe they sent up the right flare, but something nagged at his head, that it was not alright. Mindlessly, he continued to run up the stairs behind Leanna.

"Here. This one looks vacant." Austin nodded and smashed the handle off with the butt of his gun, rushing in to make sure it was safe.

"Clear," He let out a big exhale as he saw Leanna safely move furniture in front of the door. They were sealed in, but safe, regardless. Seating himself at the dining table, he continued to stress over the wellbeing of his friends. A small pack of cleaners nearly forced a building to fall on five of them. Imagine what large pack could do to three men. The results would be devastating. He should go help. He could get the flank on them. He could save his friends. He could get there pretty quickly.

Austin just realized Leanna had taken all her gear off and sat neck to him around the table. "Austin. Hey. Austin," She lightly shook his forearm and he turned towards her, finding her staring into his eyes. "The rest are fine. You know them. They've made it this far. I promise."

"It's just... uh..." He lost his train of thought. Her eyes were a deep shade of brown he never noticed before.

"Just what?" She questioned him with an almost sarcastic grin, staring into his eyes. He had received compliments throughout his whole life for having really bright shade of blue.

"I love those guys... Everyone in our group. I don't know what I'd do if I lost any of you."

"Don't think that way. Please, Austin."

"I don't like it either, but I can't help it. It comes from leading out in the field... It's part of my job to assess every situation and address every outcome, good or bad."

"Well sometimes we all need a break, right? How about you take yours tonight? Move your mindset from being the big bad captain to just Austin Kennedy?" She was making progress, she could tell by his facial expression.

"I guess you have a point. We do need to get back to the guys soon-ish."

"Tomorrow morning, we will run on back to base," She gave him a warm smile again to reassure him, and he returned it. She knew he had broke by now, "Now, come on, go to sleep."

"I'm going to watch the door. We don't need anyone seeking up on us."

"Fine. But when I get up a in an hour, you better go to bed," She smiled and walked towards the bedroom, getting ready to sleep. She left most of her gear on as it was New York in December. For anyone unaware, that means incredibly cold. The apartment did a good job at trapping heat and it was in pretty good condition, so it did not feel completely like Antarctica. Austin let his mind trail about as he inspected his weapon. He thought about his friends who could be in danger, what their next action to prepare for war with the Fallen, and about Leanna. The more he talks to her, the more he urges to talk even more. From the blonde hair to her eyes that drove him crazy to her amazing personality, he loved it all. But this was like his job. The age old question plagued him: Should he mix work and pleasure? Maybe just a little.

Pondering life only took up so much time, so he resorted to counting the cracks in the wall, bored. He could have went to bed and gotten no complaints from Leanna, but he knew the responsible thing to do was keep watch as he said he would. She woke up about twenty minutes later and walked out to Austin, "Go to bed captain." She was incredibly drowsy, in an almost drunken state.

"Alright, alright. I'm coming." She grabbed his hand and pulled him behind her into the bedroom. She laid down in the bed, watching Austin take off all his gear. Accounting for the weather and also being somewhat professional, he kept his pants and under t-shirt on. Austin laid down next to her with a good amount of space between the two, not wanting to invade her space.

Leanna did not have that idea in mind though. She moved over and wrapped her arms around his back, onto his chest. She whispered, "Goodnight."

Austin responded, somewhat uncomfortably, but exactly happy with what was happening, "Night."


End file.
